205 
THE WILD PIGEON C 
market, these experts prepared with climbers 
would get into some convenient place in a 
tree top loaded with nests, and with a long 
pole punch out the young, which would fall 
with a thud like lead on the ground. 
In May, 1880, I visited the last known 
nesting place east of the Great Lakes. It 
was on Platt River in Benzie County, 
Michigan. There were on these grounds 
many large white birch trees filled with 
nests. These trees have manifold bark, 
which when old hangs in shreds like rags or 
flowing moss, along their trunks and limbs. 
This bark will burn like paper soaked in 
oil. Here for the first time I saw r with 
shame and pity a new mode for robbing 
these birds’ nests, which I look upon as being 
devilish. These outlaws to all moral sense 
would touch a lighted match to the bark of 
the trees at the base, when with a flash more 
like an explosion the blast would reach every 
limb of the tree and while the affrighted 
young birds would leap simultaneously to 
the ground, the parent birds, with plumage 
scorched, would rise high in air amid flame 
and smoke. I noticed that many of these 
squabs were so fat and clumsy they would 
burst open on striking the ground. Several 
thousand were obtained during the day by 
that cruel process. 
That night I staid with an old man on the 
highlands just north of the nesting. In the 
course of the evening I explained to him the 
cruelty that was being shown to the young 
birds in the nesting. He listened to me in 
utter astonishment and said, “ My God, is 
that possible! ” Remaining silent a few 
moments with bowed head, he looked up and 
said, “ See here, old Indian, you go out with 
me in the morning and I will show you a 
way to catch pigeons that will please any 
red man and the birds too.” 
Early the next morning I followed him a 
few rods from his hut, where he showed me 
an open pole pen, about two feet high, which 
he called his bait bed. Into this he scattered 
a bucket of wheat. We then sat in ambush 
so as to see through between the poles into 
the pen. Soon they began to pour into the 
pen and gorge themselves. While I was 
watching and admiring them, all at once to 
F NORTH AMERICA. 
my surprise they began fluttering and fall¬ 
ing on their sides and backs and kicking 
and quivering like a lot of cats with paper 
tied over their feet. He jumped into the 
pen saying, “ Come on, you redskin.’ 
I was right on hand by his side. A few 
birds flew out of the pen apparently crip¬ 
pled, but we caught and caged about one 
hundred fine birds. After my excitement 
was over I sat down on one of the cages, 
and thought in my heart, “Certainly Pokagon 
is dreaming, or this long-haired white man is 
a watch.” I finally said, “Look here, old 
fellow, tell me how you did that.” He gazed 
at me, holding his long wEite beard in one 
hand, and said with one eye half shut and a 
sly wink with the other, “That wEeat w'as 
soaked in whisky.” His answer fell like 
lead upon my heart. We had talked tem¬ 
perance together the night before, and the 
old man w'ept as I told him how my people 
had fallen before the intoxicating cup of 
the white man, like leaves before the blast 
of autumn. In silence I left the place, say¬ 
ing in my heart, “ Surely the time is nowTul- 
filled, when false prophets shall show 
signs and winders to seduce, if it w r ere pos¬ 
sible, even the elect.” 
I have read recently in some of our game 
sporting journals, “ A warwhoop has been 
sounded against some of our western 
Indians for killing game in the mountain 
region.” Now if these red men are guilty 
of a moral w^rong which subjects them to 
punishment, I would most prayerfully ask in 
the name of Him who suffers not a sparrow' 
to fall unnoticed, what must be the nature 
of the crime and degree of punishment 
awaiting our white neighbors wEo have so 
wantonly butchered and driven from our 
forests these wild pigeons, the most beauti¬ 
ful flowers of the animal creation of North 
America. 
In closing this article I wish to say a few r 
w'ords relative to the knowfledge of things 
about them that these birds seem to possess. 
In the spring of 1866 there w r ere scattered 
throughout northern Indiana and southern 
Michigan vast numbers of these birds. On 
April 10 in the morning they commenced 
moving in small flocks in diverging lines 
